Posted on June 1, 2022
Conservationists received the final piece of funding Thursday needed to purchase the 384-acre Banning Ranch oil field as part of an effort to restore the land as an open space park.
The state’s Wildlife Conservation Board awarded up to a $15.5 million grant to nonprofit groups Trust for Public Land and Banning Ranch Conservancy toward the $97 million purchase of Banning Ranch.
The Newport Beach property is considered one of the last remaining pieces of privately owned land along Southern California’s coasts, and conservationists have spent almost 20 years lobbying for its preservation.
